Boston Herald
Encyclopedia
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

s in its history, including four for editorial writing and three for photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

 before it was converted to tabloid format in 1981.

History

The Herald's history can be traced back through two lineages, the Daily Advertiser
Boston Daily Advertiser
The Boston Daily Advertiser was the first daily newspaper in Boston, and for many years the only daily paper in Boston.-History:...

 and the old Boston Herald, and two media moguls, William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...

 and Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

.

The Original Boston Herald

The original Boston Herald was founded in 1846 by a group of Boston printers jointly under the name of John A. French & Company. The paper was published as a single two-sided sheet, selling for one cent. Its first editor, William O. Eaton, just 22 years old, said "The Herald will be independent in politics and religion; liberal, industrious, enterprising, critically concerned with literacy and dramatic matters, and diligent in its mission to report and analyze the news, local and global."

In 1847 the Boston Herald absorbed the Boston American Eagle and the Boston Daily Times.

The Boston Herald and Boston Journal

In October 1917, John H. Higgins, the publisher and treasurer of the Boston Herald bought out its next door neighbor The Boston Journal
The Boston Journal
The Boston Journal was a daily newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts from 1833 until October 1917 when it was merged with the Boston Herald....

 and created The Boston Herald and Boston Journal

The Boston Traveler

Even earlier than the Herald, the weekly American Traveler was founded in 1825 as a bulletin for stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...

 listings.

The Boston Evening Traveler

The Boston Evening Traveler was founded in 1845. The Boston Evening Traveler was the successor to the weekly American Traveler and the semi weekly Boston Traveler.

In 1857 The Boston Atlas, The Boston Chronicle and The Evening Telegraph were merged into The Traveler.

In 1912, the Herald acquired the Traveler, continuing to publish both under their own names. After a newspaper strike in 1967, Herald-Traveler Corp. suspended the afternoon Traveler and absorbed the evening edition into the Herald to create the Boston Herald Traveler.

The Boston Daily Advertiser

The Boston Daily Advertiser was established in 1813 in Boston by Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale (journalist)
Nathan Hale was an American journalist and newspaper publisher who introduced regular editorial comment as a newspaper feature.-Life and career:...

. The paper grew to prominence throughout the 19th century, taking over other Boston area papers. In 1832 The Advertiser took over control of The Boston Patriot, and then in 1840 it took over and absorbed The Boston Gazette. The paper was purchased by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...

 in 1917. In 1920 the Advertiser was merged with The Boston Record, initially the combined newspaper was called the Boston Advertiser however when the combined newspaper became an illustrated tabloid in 1921 it was renamed The Boston American. Hearst Corp. continued using the name Advertiser for its Sunday paper until the early 1970s.

The Boston Record

On September 3, 1884 The Boston Evening Record was started by the Boston Advertiser as a campaign newspaper. The Record was so popular that it was made a permanent publication.

The Boston American

In 1904, William Randolph Hearst began publishing his own newspaper in Boston called The American. Hearst ultimately ended up purchasing the Daily Advertiser in 1917. By 1938, the Daily Advertiser had changed to the Daily Record, and The American had become the Sunday Advertiser. A third paper owned by Hearst, called the Afternoon Record, which had been renamed the Evening American, merged in 1961 with the Daily Record to form the Record American. The Sunday Advertiser and Record American would ultimately be merged in 1972 into The Boston Herald Traveler a line of newspapers that stretched back to the old Boston Herald.

The Boston Herald-Traveler

In 1946, Herald-Traveler Corporation acquired Boston radio station WHDH
WEEI
WEEI is a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, that broadcasts on 850 kHz from a transmitter in Needham, Massachusetts, and is owned by Entercom Communications. The station is one of the top-rated sports talk radio stations in the nation. Studios are located in Brighton, Massachusetts...

. Two years later, WHDH-FM was licensed, and on November 26, 1957, WHDH-TV
WHDH-TV (defunct)
WHDH-TV was the callsign of the first station to use channel 5 in Boston. The station ceased operations March 18, 1972, after the station lost its license. The channel, but not the license, was taken over by WCVB-TV the following morning: March 19, 1972. It is of no relation to either WCVB or...

 made its début as an ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 affiliate on channel 5. In 1961, WHDH-TV's affiliation switched to CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

. Herald-Traveler Corp. operated for years under temporary authority from the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 stemming from controversy over luncheon meetings the newspaper's chief executive had with an FCC commissioner during the original licensing process (Some Boston broadcast historians accuse the Boston Globe of being covertly behind the proceeding. The Herald Traveler was Republican in sympathies, and the Globe then had a firm policy of not endorsing political candidates.) The FCC ordered comparative hearings, and in 1969 a competing applicant, Boston Broadcasters, Inc. was granted a construction permit to replace WHDH-TV on channel 5. Herald-Traveler Corp. fought the decision in court—by this time, revenues from channel 5 were all but keeping the newspaper afloat—but its final appeal ran out in 1972, and on March 19 WHDH-TV was forced to surrender channel 5 to the new WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Hearst Television and affiliated with the ABC Television Network. WCVB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Needham, Massachusetts. WCVB is also one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada by...

.

The Boston Herald-Traveler and Record American

Without a television station to subsidize the newspaper, the Herald Traveler was no longer able to remain in business, and the newspaper was sold to Hearst Corporation
Hearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...

, which published the rival all-day newspaper, the Record American. The two papers were merged to become an all-day paper called the Boston Herald-Traveler and Record American in the morning and Record-American and Boston Herald Traveler in the afternoon. The first editions published under the new combined name were those of June 19, 1972. The afternoon edition was soon dropped and the unwieldy name shortened to Boston Herald American, with the Sunday edition called the Sunday Herald Advertiser. The Herald American was printed in broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...

 format, and failed to target a particular readership; where the Record-American had been a typical city tabloid, the Herald-Traveler was a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 paper.

Murdoch purchases The Herald American

The Herald American converted to tabloid format in September 1981, but Hearst faced steep declines in circulation and advertising. The company announced it would close the Herald American -- making Boston a one-newspaper town—on December 3, 1982. When the deadline came, Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

 was negotiating to buy the paper and save it. He closed on the deal after 30 hours of talks with Hearst and newspaper unions—and five hours after Hearst had sent out notices to newsroom employees telling them they were terminated. The newspaper announced its own survival the next day with a full-page headline: "You Bet We're Alive!"

The Boston Herald once again

Murdoch changed the paper's name back to the Boston Herald. The Herald continued to grow, expanding its coverage and increasing its circulation until 2001, when nearly all newspapers fell victim to declining circulations and revenue.

Independent ownership

In February 1994, Murdoch's News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

 was forced to sell the paper, in order that its subsidiary Fox Television Stations could legally consummate its purchase of Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 affiliate WFXT (Channel 25). Patrick J. Purcell, who was the publisher of the Boston Herald and a former News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

 executive, purchased the Herald and established it as an independent newspaper. Several years later, Purcell would give the Herald a suburban presence it never had by purchasing the money-losing Community Newspaper Company
Community Newspaper Company
Community Newspaper Company, a subsidiary of GateHouse Media, is a newspaper publisher in eastern Massachusetts. It was founded in 1991 as a holding company for several suburban publishers bought by Fidelity Investments; in 2001, Fidelity sold it to the Boston Herald; in 2006, the massive chain—New...

 from Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments
FMR LLC or Fidelity Investments is an American multinational financial services corporation one of the largest mutual fund and financial services groups in the world. It was founded in 1946 and serves North American investors. Fidelity Ventures is its venture capital arm...

. Although the companies merged under the banner of Herald Media, Inc., the suburban papers maintained their distinct editorial and marketing identity.

After years of operating profits at Community Newspaper and losses at the Herald, Purcell in 2006 sold the suburban chain to newspaper conglomerate Liberty Group Publishing of Illinois, which soon after changed its name to GateHouse Media
GateHouse Media
GateHouse Media Inc. is a U.S. newspaper publisher, headquartered in Perinton, New York, that publishes 97 dailies in 20 states and 198 paid weeklies, in addition to free papers, shoppers and specialty and niche publications.- History :Liberty Group Publishing was formed in 1998 when Kenneth L...

. The deal, which also saw GateHouse acquiring The Patriot Ledger
The Patriot Ledger
The Patriot Ledger is a daily afternoon newspaper published in Quincy, Massachusetts and serving the South Shore. Its circulation is 55,000 on weekdays and 63,000 for its Weekend edition which is published on Saturday mornings....

 and The Enterprise
The Enterprise (Brockton)
The Enterprise is an afternoon daily newspaper published in Brockton, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper is considered a newspaper of record for Brockton and several suburban communities of northern Bristol and Plymouth counties, and southern Norfolk County, Massachusetts...

 in south suburban Quincy
Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Its nicknames are "City of Presidents", "City of Legends", and "Birthplace of the American Dream". As a major part of Metropolitan Boston, Quincy is a member of Boston's Inner Core Committee for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council...

 and Brockton
Brockton, Massachusetts
Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population was 93,810 in the 2010 Census. Brockton, along with Plymouth, are the county seats of Plymouth County...

, netted $225 million for Purcell, who vowed to use the funds to clear the Herald's debt and reinvest in the Paper.

Awards

The Heralds four Pulitzer Prizes for editorial writing, in 1924, 1927, 1949 and 1954, are among the most awarded to a single newspaper in the category. In 1957 Harry Trask was a young staff photographer at the Traveler when he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his photo sequence of the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria
SS Andrea Doria
SS Andrea Doria[p] was an ocean liner for the Italian Line home ported in Genoa, Italy, most famous for its sinking in 1956, when 46 people died. Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the ship had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1,200 passengers and...

 in July 1956. Herald photographer Stanley Forman
Stanley Forman
Stanley Joseph Forman is a photojournalist who over a four-year period won a Pulitzer Prize three times while working at the Boston Herald American....

 received two Pulitzer Prizes consecutively in 1976 and 1977, the first being a dramatic shot of a young child falling in mid-air from her mother's arms on the upper stories of a burning apartment building to the waiting arms of firefighters below, and the latter (known as "The soiling of Old Glory") being of Ted Landsmark
Ted Landsmark
Theodore C. Landsmark is the president of the Boston Architectural College and was previously the Dean of Graduate and Continuing Education at the Massachusetts College of Art...

, an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 city official, being beaten with an American flag during Boston's school busing
Busing
Busing may refer to:* Busing, the use of road vehicle designed to carry passengers* Desegregation busing in the United States* John Busing , American football strong safety...

 crisis. In 2006 the Herald won two SABEW awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers
Society of American Business Editors and Writers
The Society of American Business Editors and Writers is an association of business journalists. Its headquarters is at the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri....

 for its breaking news coverage of the takeover of local company Gillette Co. and for overall excellence.

Columnists

  • Howie Carr
    Howie Carr
    Howard Louis "Howie" Carr, Jr. is an American journalist, author, and conservative radio talk-show host based in Boston with a listening audience rooted in New England.-Radio:...

     writes extensively on local politics and is a radio talk show host and frequent TV commentator.
  • Margery Eagan
    Margery Eagan
    Margery Eagan is a long time columnist with the Boston Herald, a talk radio host, and a frequent guest on CNN, ABC, Fox News, and the Imus in the Morning radio show...

     and Peter Gelzinis are longtime metro columnists, as is Joe Fitzgerald, who was formerly a sports columnist.
  • Michael Graham is an op-ed columnist for the Boston Herald.
  • Ron Borges
    Ron Borges
    Ron Borges is currently a sportswriter for the Boston Herald. He previously wrote for The Boston Globe, and was a regular guest on Michael Felger's radio show The Mike Felger Show, which aired on 890 ESPN until July 2008. Borges also was a regular contributor to the until 2008...

     is a sports columnist and former long-time columnist for The Boston Globe
    The Boston Globe
    The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...

    .
  • Gerry Callahan
    Gerry Callahan
    Dennis and Callahan is an American morning radio show on WEEI, a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts. On November 16, 2010, a live three-hour simulcast began airing on NESN from 6-9AM Eastern time each weekday. The show combines talk of sports and politics, along with current or "water...

     is a sports columnist and talk show host for WEEI
    WEEI
    WEEI is a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, that broadcasts on 850 kHz from a transmitter in Needham, Massachusetts, and is owned by Entercom Communications. The station is one of the top-rated sports talk radio stations in the nation. Studios are located in Brighton, Massachusetts...

    .
  • Steve Buckley
    Steve Buckley (journalist)
    Steve Buckley is an Irish American journalist. He has been a regular columnist with the Boston Herald since 1995, contributing to the paper's Sports section. His columns often use historical perspective drawn from a diverse variety of sources. He joined Boston Sports radio station WEEI in 1993 and...

     is a longtime sports columnist and frequent co-host on WEEI
    WEEI
    WEEI is a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, that broadcasts on 850 kHz from a transmitter in Needham, Massachusetts, and is owned by Entercom Communications. The station is one of the top-rated sports talk radio stations in the nation. Studios are located in Brighton, Massachusetts...

    .
  • Dave Wedge
    Dave Wedge
    David Wedge , is a reporter and political columnist for the Boston Herald and a freelance journalist.-Career and personal life:...

     is a political columnist, longtime reporter and frequent TV and radio commentator.
  • Jessica Heslam
    Jessica Heslam
    Jessica Heslam is currently the media reporter for the Boston Herald.Heslam was hired by the Boston newspaper in 2000 from the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Massachusetts...

     covers the media.
  • Joe Sciacca is the tabloid's new editor-in-chief, taking over in July 2010 for Kevin Convey, who left the Herald to become editor of the New York Daily News
    New York Daily News
    The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....

    . Sciacca is a former political reporter and columnist who is a regular panelist on "Beat the Press" on the WGBH
    WGBH-TV
    WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...

     TV show Greater Boston
    Greater Boston
    Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston. Due to ambiguity in usage, the size of the area referred to can be anywhere between that of the metropolitan statistical area of Boston and that of the city's combined statistical area which includes...

    , which is hosted by Emily Rooney
    Emily Rooney
    Emily Rooney is an American journalist, TV talk show and radio host and former news producer. Since 1997, Rooney has been the host, executive editor and creator of Greater Boston and the weekly Beat the Press on WGBH-TV, which are also later rebroadcast on the Boston-based WGBH radio station...

    .
  • Laurel Sweet is an award-winning reporter who covers courts and crime.
  • Lauren Beckham Falcone covers pop culture, style and all things feature-y for the Boston Herald.
  • Jessica Van Sack is an award-winning reporter who covers local innovation, worldwide technology trends and social media. She also reviews tech gadgets and writes the weekly Booting Up column.
  • Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa, along with their assistant Megan Johnson, write the Herald's Inside Track and cover celebrity news.

Boston Herald in Education Program

The Boston Herald in Education Program provides teachers throughout Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 with classroom newspapers and educational materials at no cost. Teachers use the newspapers in the classroom along with frameworks-compatible teacher guides and in-paper educational series. Each day, the Boston Herald distributes approximately 10,000 newspapers to participating classrooms in over 184 communities throughout Massachusetts. October 2007, the In Education program partnered with the Massachusetts Literacy Foundation and Got Books? to support school communities and place fundraising book donation containers at schools across the state in order to help raise money for schools and supplement costs of the newspaper program.

See also

  • The Boston Daily Advertiser
    Boston Daily Advertiser
    The Boston Daily Advertiser was the first daily newspaper in Boston, and for many years the only daily paper in Boston.-History:...

  • The Boston Journal
    The Boston Journal
    The Boston Journal was a daily newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts from 1833 until October 1917 when it was merged with the Boston Herald....

  • The Boston News-Letter
    The Boston News-Letter
    First published on April 24, 1704, The Boston News-Letter is regarded as the first continuously published newspaper in British North America. It was heavily subsidized by the British government, with a limited circulation. The colonies’ first newspaper was Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and...

  • The Boston Evening Transcript
    Boston Evening Transcript
    The Boston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.-Beginnings:...

  • The Boston Globe
    The Boston Globe
    The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...

  • The Boston Post

Further reading

  • Sterling Quinlan, The Hundred Million Dollar Lunch (Chicago, J.P. O'Hara, 1974), ISBN 0-87955-310-3.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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